“Visages de Punk,” CambridgeSeven’s current exhibition, is Boston photographer JJ Gonson’s ode to Boston’s vibrant punk scene of the mid-to-late 1980s through the first half of the 1990s. This show features fairly unseen photographs of Kurt Cobain, Elliott Smith and the many fans and independent artists who made up the music scene of that time period. The work shows a new side to these artists that was only seen by close friends and core members of the music community. In collaboration with curator Kwesi Budu-Arthur, Gonson does an exceptional job of showing the faces of that period’s punk era to music lovers of all ages. This exhibition will be on view through October 19. The first thing one notices when looking at the work is Gonson’s choice of image titles; each piece is titled with just the subject’s first name. She made this decision because this show is the faces of punk. “I … [Read more...] about ROCKING AND ROLLING: GONSON GOES BEYOND THE IMAGE
Issue Articles
FROM BOGOTÁ TO BOSTON: STREET ARTISTS AT SSAC
Before Kim Alemian, graphic designer and webmaster for the South Shore Art Center, visited Colombia in 2015, she hadn’t seen street art (or graffiti) as a genuine art form — she saw it as vandalism. That changed during that trip to Bogotá after she and her students were invited to create a mural project for the Hogar Nueva Granada school on the campus of Colegio Fundacion Nueva Granada. The project was a direct result of an earlier visit to Colombia by one of Alemian’s students, Desmond Herzfelder, and his parents, and their meeting with one of its art teachers, Diana Londoño. He returned home with the idea of going back to the school to create a mural project that would engage the kids there. Alemian was asked to create the project. “For a week, we worked with street artists,” she explained. “Someone donated a lot of art supplies for us to work with. When we were going, we … [Read more...] about FROM BOGOTÁ TO BOSTON: STREET ARTISTS AT SSAC
COOPER AT LESLEY: CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE
In a world where image and imagination merge, Lesley University, in celebration of the recent opening of their newly expanded VFX/Animation Department, is enthusiastically highlighting Kyle Cooper’s signature work in a cursive, vibrant, sequential exhibition, “Kyle Cooper: The Art of The Title,” currently being presented in the Lunder Arts Center’s Roberts Gallery. Since the 1930s, film-credit-sequence design has taken a progressive, quantum leap in purpose and in presentation; its encompassing manner has now evolved into an art form of its own, enhanced by visually dazzling special effects and cutting-edge digital, virtual reality effects that speak with a poetic, didactic purpose. It’s all about how a feature film is introduced, its opening brimming with kinetic typeface awash in an undulating whirl of animated visuals. The opening credit sequence’s central design purpose is to … [Read more...] about COOPER AT LESLEY: CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE
FLOWERS OR SEX? CREATURE COMFORTS AT CAA
Four local artists will create an installation of “Creature Comforts” at the Cambridge Art Association’s Kathryn Schultz Gallery from October 6 through November 2. The installation will be accompanied by the sound of spring “peepers” — small frogs that make a resonant pond chorus in the spring with their mating calls — serving as the backdrop for a New Gallery Concert Series event on October 20 at 7 p.m. that brings together new pieces of music and visual art. The show is curated by Gin Stone, who lives and works on Cape Cod and is a highly passionate environmentalist who uses her artistic craft to encourage the recycling of marine materials and gear by integrating it into her animal, bird and “Humane Taxidermy” sculptural pieces. Close study of her work reveals discarded pieces familiar to anyone who cherishes walking along a seashore. Especially striking is “Freyja,” which eerily … [Read more...] about FLOWERS OR SEX? CREATURE COMFORTS AT CAA
GALLERY NIGHT PROVIDENCE: SHOWCASING URBAN VIBRANCE AND SYNERGY
The vitality of a city is evident from your first moments in it. Urban vibrancy comes from the synergy of different factors — economic opportunities; diversity in all its expressions; dense, concentrated centers with a variety of businesses and architecture where pedestrian traffic is facilitated and encouraged; and, most essential, a city government who sees the success of the arts and culture sector as a quality of life indicator. Providence, Rhode Island is a vibrant city. Its long history of sustaining a creative economy began in its early days as a commercial port city, when the shipping industry was able to support the craftsmen who settled here. Providence continues to successfully attract and sustain artists, artisans, dancers, musicians, actors and innovative cultural entrepreneurs who, in turn, have made it one of the most culturally rich cities on the East Coast. In the … [Read more...] about GALLERY NIGHT PROVIDENCE: SHOWCASING URBAN VIBRANCE AND SYNERGY
START MAKING SENSE: HOULE QUESTIONS SPACE AND PLACE
On a recent visit to the sites of ancient cave drawings in France, Jenn Houle couldn’t help but be awed and humbled by their sheer majesty and history — but what most struck her, she said, was the “drive and the earnestness” of their prehistoric creators. In some cases, the “artists” would have had to scale rock walls to heights of 25 feet or more; in other instances, they would have been required to squeeze through a 3-foot-wide opening and then belly-crawl a few hundred feet to get to their “canvas.” “And nobody knows why,” Houle mused. “It shows our very early drive to record the world around us and to leave a record behind.” Houle is fascinated by this eternal struggle of sentient beings to try to make sense of the world and their place in it (including her own); she explores this motif in her whimsically named exhibit, “Meteors are Space Eggs,” on view September 16 to … [Read more...] about START MAKING SENSE: HOULE QUESTIONS SPACE AND PLACE